Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting of the Presidential Commission over the development strategy of the fuel and energy sector and ecological safety on Wednesday and urged to investigate the misappropriation cases in the electric power industry.
“The question of the payment discipline was raised repeatedly in the electric power industry, but I would like to say that the things are still right where they started,” the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily quoted Vladimir Putin as saying. “Upon the results of the previous year total debts of the electric power consumers went up by 60%. There are just blatant cases! A well-known company Energostream, where, to my reports, seven criminal cases were opened, the top management is escaping justice somewhere, and they cannot be detained yet,” Putin said. In reply to the question of the president whether criminal cases were opened against the indebted companies, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev said that six criminal cases were opened against Energostream and criminal cases were denied against other companies.
The Russian president instructed to investigate the embezzlement cases of the funds from RusHydro, the Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily reported. Putin was concerned that the companies do not participate in the trials as the injured parties. RusHydro CEO Yevgeny Dod noted that “no official proposals were made.” “Do you understand what you are saying? You are investigating the embezzlement case for a too long period of time. One billion roubles was misappropriated from you, so, one billion roubles was misused for fly-by-night firms, one billion roubles was embezzled,” the newspaper quoted Putin as saying.
One had a feeling upon the results of the Wednesday meeting chaired by Vladimir Putin over the development of the fuel and energy sector that the RusHydro CEO is about to be replaced, the RBC daily reported. The president criticized harshly Yevgeny Dod that the latter reported untimely about the theft cases at the hydropower facilities under construction in the law enforcement agencies. The company is puzzled as the results of the internal audit are not ready yet.
Yevgeny Dod fell victim of a tacit standoff between Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich and Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin, the experts said with confidence. The fact that not everything is all right in the RusHydro management by the RusHydro CEO became clear after five out of 13 members of the RusHydro Board of Directors quitted it in December 2012. They refused to vote for a proposal of the Federal State Property Management Agency to conduct an additional share issue of the company.
Yevgeny Dod is Igor Sechin’s associate, chief expert of the analytical department of the Centre of Political Climate Dmitry Abzalov claimed. With the transfer of Sechin in Rosneft his influence on the electric power industry became weaker and Dod turned out to be between the devil and the deep sea.